Ukrainian flour exports up by 20.1% in 2022/23 compared to pre-crisis level - association

MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Ukrainian flour millers increased flour exports to 149,700 tonnes in the 2022/23 marketing year, which is 20.1% more than in the pre-crisis 2020/21 marketing year, when it was 124,600 tonnes, Sergei Sakirkin, head of the auditing commission in the Flour Millers of Ukraine Union, said in a review for the APK-Inform agribusiness news and analytical agency.

"That is, in the year when seas were safe, when containers of bran (the cost of which was subject of constant complaining by everyone) were selling like hot cakes, and when overstocked warehouses were unimaginable - and yet only 125,000 tonnes. And now there's sea only in Romania and farther, outrageous prices for trucks to ports and to European consumers, [...] absolutely horrible logistics. And 150,000 tonnes!" Ukrainian media quoted Sakirkin as saying in his review.

Ukrainian flour exports in the 2021/22 marketing year were record low, amounting to 69,800 tonnes, while in the current marketing year, they are expected to reach 180,000 tonnes, the industry association said.

Analyzing flour exports month by month, Sakirkin said "the state of affairs was hard to understand" from March to June 2022.

"Then it became clear that we had to work and work in a new way. We squared our shoulders and then worked almost without failures. Rare stability, unlike in the previous two years," he said.

In the past season, Ukrainian flour prices were affected by both global price factors and very expensive logistics, he said.

"Shipping terms that include payment for transportation show different prices, but unfortunately, this is not profit at all," Sakirkin said. "By the way, if you don't take absolute figures, the price dynamics in 2022/23 was very much similar to that in 2020/21," he said.

The crisis has greatly affected the geography of Ukrainian flour exports, Sakirkin said. While previously, Ukrainian flour exports went primarily to northern and central Africa or the United Arab Emirates, currently the top ten importers include seven European countries.

"Exports to Moldova are on par with its usual annual amount. As for other countries, if Ukrainian flour has ever reached there, then in scanty quantities. Today, it's thousands or sometimes even tens of thousands of tonnes," Sakirkin said.

In particular, Ukraine shipped 33,940 tonnes of flour to Moldova (23% of all Ukrainian flour exports), 22,160 tonnes to Poland (15%), 14,700 tonnes to Palestine (10%), 12,980 tonnes to Romania (9%), 10,770 tonnes to Croatia (7%), 7,960 tonnes to Hungary (5%), 7,550 tonnes to Turkey (5%), 6,870 tonnes to Israel (5%), 6,350 tonnes to Slovakia (4%), and 4,430 tonnes to the Czech Republic (3%).

Currently, the top ten Ukrainian flour exporters are only producers, including the Kalush Baking Complex, Novaagro, Khmelnitsk-Mlyn, Vinnitsa Baking Complex No. 2, Vlad, and others, the association said.